Your insurer wants to track your driving. Is the discount worth it?

Car insurance tracking can lower your rate, but it collects detailed driving data. See what insurers track before you sign up.

Science/Technology Oct 21, 2026 0 1 Add to Reading List

At a glance

Insurance tracking programs can monitor braking, speed, mileage, phone use and even your location.
Safe driving may earn you a discount, but some programs can also raise your rate for riskier behavior.
The FTC finalized an order against GM in 2026 over allegations involving the collection and sale of driving and location data.
Before signing up, check what your insurer collects, who receives the data and whether your premium can increase.

Your insurer may already be offering car insurance tracking in exchange for the chance to lower your premium. You download an app, give it permission to monitor your driving, and your insurer uses what it learns to help calculate what you pay. That can sound like an easy discount, especially when auto insurance remains expensive. Yet the tradeoff can be much bigger than many drivers realize. Depending on the program, your insurer may learn when you drive, where you go, how hard you brake, how quickly you accelerate, how often you speed and whether you touch your phone behind the wheel. Depending on the insurer and where you live, the same type of driving data that earns one driver a discount can lead to a higher rate for another. So, before you sign up, it’s worth knowing exactly what these programs track, how they use your data and whether the savings are really worth the tradeoff.

How car insurance tracking works

Insurers call these programs usage-based insurance or telematics. Many now work through a smartphone app, although some programs also use a small device inside your vehicle or data from connected-car technology.

Once activated, the technology can automatically record trips and evaluate driving behavior. Exactly what gets measured depends on your insurance company, the program and where you live.

For example, Progressive says its Snapshot program collects information about how safely, how much and when you drive. Its mobile app can also collect phone use, vehicle speed and GPS location. Progressive says location may be used for underwriting and other purposes, but where you drive is not used to determine your personalized Snapshot rate.
State Farm‘s Drive Safe & Save program uses the State Farm app and a Bluetooth beacon. The app requires Precise Location to record trips and can identify acceleration, hard braking, cornering, speeding and phone distraction. State Farm says it does not sell information collected through the program, although it may share information with third parties in limited circumstances.
Allstate‘s Drivewise program uses its mobile app to collect driving information through Allstate affiliate Arity. Allstate says that includes geolocation and driving behavior data.
GEICO‘s DriveEasy program uses your phone’s GPS, Bluetooth and other sensors to determine where, when and how long you drive, along with behaviors such as phone use. GEICO says it does not share or sell DriveEasy driving information to third parties.

That is a lot of information to exchange for an insurance discount.

Want to see if you can lower your car insurance without being tracked?

Before giving an insurer access to your driving habits and location, it may be worth seeing whether another company can simply offer you a better rate.

Compare rates now